STRONG AWARD WINNER

Dublin born, and West Kerry raised, Simon Ó Faoláin is the winner of this year's Strong Award for his first poetry collection Anam Mhadra, Coiscéim 2008. Comhghairdeas, Simon!

Commiserations to Patrick Cotter, Ciaran Berry and Áine Moynihan who were all very worthy co-listees.

All four read at yesterday's Poetry Now Festival in Dun Laoghaire and it was a joy to listen to the variety in their work: some ponderous, some moving, all very well crafted. Pat Cotter - in a gorgeous red tie - stole the show, IMO, with his witty poems, his assured, relaxed delivery and his references to 'decadent enjambments' and other writerly concerns. All in all, it was an entertaining couple of hours of hot-off-the-presses poetry.

Tagged - a book meme

Tania Hershman tagged me with a meme. I haven't done one before and I don't think I'll pass on the tag because a) I don't personally know too many bloggers, and b) I don't really want to be tagged back. It's too time consuming! Here it is anyway:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

OK, so here goes:
1. Nearest book is Eithne Strong's Patterns, a short story collection which I dug out of a box of books abandoned in a press, when I was shortlisted for the Strong Award.

2. Page 123 is in the middle of a story called 'The Requiem'.

She wondered had she, hoped she had, wounded him. And almost at once was sorry also. She leaned over him, bending her head down to his but she could not see his face.

Eithne's sentences are short and punchy, aren't they? What's interesting is that it makes you see every word a writer writes when you re-write their sentence. Apparently a lot of wannabe writers re-wrote favourite writers' work 'to see how they do it'. I heard Joseph O'Connor say that at a reading. Also C.K. Williams said he did that when younger to feel like the original poet. Sort of mad but possibly informative?